Melia Sancti Petri

We had a very pleasant stay at this hotel. The location is really fantastic: right by the sea and via a private path you walk up the beach within a minute. In addition, the hotel has its own beach bar, which is very nice if you want to eat or drink during the day. The hotel is clean, the staff is incredibly friendly and welcoming and what we personally liked very much is that about 90% of the guests are Spanish. As a result, there is a quiet, authentic atmosphere and there are few tourists. Breakfast is very extensive, with plenty of choice for everyone. The pool is nice and quiet, the sunbeds are lovely and the beds in the room sleep excellently. There were a few areas for improvement. In our shower there was mold in some places, something we do not expect from a hotel in this price range. In addition, we had a less pleasant experience at the beach bar. Without us asking for it, a basket of four small sandwiches was put on the table. Afterwards, €15 was charged for this. We found that very disappointing and not neat, especially since nothing was said about it beforehand. Despite these negatives, we enjoyed our stay enormously. If you are looking for a luxurious, clean and quiet hotel in a prime location right by the sea, this is definitely recommended. With a little more attention to the mentioned areas of improvement, this hotel would be almost perfect for us.

We visit several places in southern Spain, booked 4 nights this hotel and it is really great! It starts already in the lobby, nice luxury space and check-in goes smoothly. We had booked a premium room with a private garden, from the garden you walk directly into the pool, also you have your own sunbeds in your garden. The room and bathroom are spacious and very clean. Our room had a spacious separate rain shower, a bathtub and a huge sink. The beds are really divine and are changed every day, even before bedtime the beds are remade every night and there are chocolates on the bed. In addition, the room is equipped with a well-functioning air conditioning, minibar that is stocked every day, bathrobes and many towels that are changed every day. The spacious and also heated swimming pool has enough beds. Towel laying is really not necessary, even after breakfast we still had enough choice of beds along the pool around 11:30. There is also a poolside bar where you can get drinks or you can order them from your sunbed and they will be delivered. The atmosphere in and around the hotel is extremely relaxed. No screaming children or noisy people. We note that 90% of the guests are Spanish and hardly any tourists stay there, it is mostly Spaniards who celebrate their holidays here from the interior, you also notice that in the surrounding villages, few tourists from outside Spain. The staff is very friendly and helpful, most of them however speak very poorly or no english. What we personally found very uncomfortable is that all the staff bow to you when you say hello to them, our concierge informed us that this is a policy from Meliá. From the pool you walk directly onto the beach and down a short staircase you walk into a very nice beach bar. Here you can sit with a great view and have a drink or an extensive lunch, the menu is mainly fish. As far as we are concerned, this hotel is highly recommended that lives up to its 5 stars. If you're looking for a relaxing stay, head here.

A Grand Meliá that does not live up to the brand or its most loyal customers. After many years staying at Meliá hotels and accumulating hundreds of nights in the chain, we had never left an establishment with such a deep sense of disappointment as we did from the Grand Meliá Sancti Petri. The most surprising thing is that we are not talking about just any hotel, but a 5-star Grand Luxury and a member of The Leading Hotels of the World. Precisely for that reason, what we experienced is difficult to understand. The experience started poorly from check-in. The service we received was cold, distant, and uncharacteristic of a hotel of this category. No personalized welcome, no explanation of the facilities, no gesture of hospitality, and no acknowledgment towards two Platinum MeliáRewards customers. More than arriving at a luxury hotel, it felt like we were going through an administrative procedure. One of the rooms, the one that was triple, had an extremely limited space, with three beds practically stuck together. When we requested alternatives, we were informed that there was availability in other categories, but that any change would involve paying more. It is difficult to understand this absolute lack of flexibility when the hotel has available rooms and we are two Platinum customers who have complimentary upgrades as a benefit of our status, which in any other Meliá is granted without any problem, as long as there is availability, as confirmed even by the hotel reception itself. Equally incomprehensible was the total absence of any welcome detail associated with Platinum status. No letter, no courtesy attention, no acknowledgment. Absolutely nothing. In years of staying at Meliá hotels, we had never experienced anything like this. The lack of coordination between departments was also evident. For several days, we were told that there was no availability at the Duna restaurant. However, when we went in person, the restaurant itself confirmed that they did have free tables and served us without any problem. A situation that raises an inevitable question: how can something like this happen in a hotel of this level? Breakfast was another of the most disappointing aspects. Waits to get a table, more than twenty minutes to be attended to, and similar times to receive orders. The staff did what they could and always showed kindness, but it was evident that the resources were insufficient. However, the worst part was not the waits, nor the room, nor the lack of coordination. The worst part was the constant feeling that our loyalty had no value. Throughout the entire stay, we did not receive a single personalized attention, nor a welcome, nor a greeting from the management. It was particularly striking to observe how the management took time to interact with certain regular guests of the hotel while completely ignoring customers whose loyalty extends to the entire Meliá chain over many years. After the stay, we also found that another Platinum customer had recently posted a very similar review in this same medium. When the same comments start to repeat among loyal customers, it no longer seems like an isolated incident, but rather a management and service culture problem. The facilities are excellent. The location is magnificent. But a luxury hotel is not defined solely by its gardens, its pool, or its buildings. It is defined by how it treats its guests. And in that aspect, this has been, by far, the most disappointing hotel in the Meliá group that we have stayed at. An experience uncharacteristic of the category, brand, and reputation that this hotel claims to have.